The present invention relates to subscription television services which may be provided by cable or satellite, and more particularly to a television interface which may be provided as a personal computer (PC) peripheral that enables a PC to receive, select and process television signals for use by a conventional television appliance such as a television set, VCR, or the like.
To date, the provision of cable television and satellite television services has focused on the use of a stand-alone "set-top" converter which converts signals from the cable or satellite television system into signals that can be displayed on a standard television. Various approaches combining both the television and the set-top box have been considered in order to obviate the necessity for a stand-alone set-top box. Such approaches require the set-top box hardware to be incorporated into a television set, increasing the cost and complexity of the television. The use of a stand-alone set-top box also represents a significant cost, with current set-tops generally costing the system operator on the order of $250.00 to $350.00 each. This cost is generally an upfront expense which will only be paid back after a subscriber has subscribed to and paid for television services over a period of time.
Cable and satellite television system operators are in the process of implementing digital television distribution systems. Digital technology provides higher quality television reception as well as the availability of additional services such as electronic program guides and interactivity. However, the implementation of digital systems is costly and has various market drawbacks. These include the rapid change of digital technology and demands for more, faster and better services which challenge existing hardware. Providing new hardware to keep up with new services is costly, and may therefore be economically unattractive to the television system operators.
Moreover, digital set-top boxes are not typically backward compatible with present analog set-tops. In fact, there is a growing divergence between the two that will keep digital services at a compatability disadvantage as long as analog systems are in place.
Still further, multiple in-home digital set-tops are not economically viable. Thus, cable television system operators are not willing to provide digital services to more than one television set in a consumer's home for the standard monthly service fees.
Current digital set-top boxes have several hardware drawbacks as well. For example, the over-utilization of the microprocessor in presently available set-tops slows down the consumer interactivity for functions such as channel change and electronic program guide retrieval. Memory in digital set-tops is also limited due to its cost. This limits the electronic program guide features as well as firmware/software updates. Present day digital set-tops also have a limited capability to handle multiple resident programs and applications. Moreover, graphics capability is limited by cost considerations in designing an economical digital set-top box.
It would be advantageous to provide a system for overcoming the drawbacks of current set-top boxes. Such a system should enable multiple services (e.g., television services and/or data services such as Internet access) to be accessed concurrently. The system should also be compatible with cable television, satellite television, and multichannel multipoint distribution services (MMDS).
It would be further advantageous to provide a system in which no stand-alone set-top box is required. This system should be less expensive than present day systems for providing subscription television services and should be versatile enough to enable new applications to be implemented without the need for new hardware. Moreover, it would be advantageous for such a system to utilize existing hardware, such as random access memory (RAM) data storage provided by a hard drive or the like, and communications capability, already provided in a user's PC. The expanded hardware capabilities of a PC, for example, would enable new and greatly enhanced features and services that are not currently available via a set top box.
The present invention provides a television system having the aforementioned and other advantages, wherein a personal computer is used to provide a television interface between a subscription television system and one or more subscriber television appliances.